Singleton Park Iolo's Great Welsh Parks

In Wales, most towns and cities have a park -

an area of green space for people to escape

the hustle and bustle of modern life.

But that's not all they're good for.

In this series,

I'm taking a look at four urban parks.

Some are old family estates,

others were once industrial sites.

But all are now places for communities to enjoy.

None are very familiar to me,

so I'll be enlisting the help of local people

with knowledge to share.

Together, I'm hoping we'll uncover their wilder side.

The first of my four urban parks is in the second largest city in Wales.

During the Industrial Revolution in Swansea,

copper made many people very wealthy.

Singleton Park is the result of one family from Cornwall,

who spent their wealth beautifying the west side of the city.

This impressive building is Singleton Abbey -

it was the home of the Vivian family

and when it was built, it was right at the heart of the estate.

The house and grounds were sold in 1919.

50 acres was used to build Singleton Hospital

and another 50 acres was used to build Swansea University.

The local council opened the remaining 140 acres

to the public soon after.

BIRD SINGS

My first visit is in February.

The wildlife may not be at its best yet,

but I want to explore potential spots for the coming seasons.

I'm starting in the north of the park,

at the botanical gardens.

This is all quite exciting for me,

because I've never been into Singleton Park before,

so obviously I don't know it at all well.

And in order to get to know it better,

I'm meeting Jeff Richards,

who's been working in this park for 36 years.

Jeff? How are you, boy? Good to see you.

Nice to see you, nice to meet you.

You're the man, then, who's going to be my guide, hopefully.

You've got time have you, to show me around a bit this morning?

Yes, plenty of time.

This is what they call the Vivian walled garden.

Obviously, in them days, no supermarkets -

so they couldn't just pop to the shop to get their vegetables.

They had to pop into this wonderful walled garden to get their vegetables.

And when is this place at its very best, Jeff?

I'm thinking of having flowers everywhere,

so that I can come in and you know,

I can see bees and butterflies and wasps.

Well, there's actually something going on all year round,

but the best times is actually July and August.

Right, let's go look at the rest of the park.

Looking at the habitats here, there's some lovely stuff,

some really mature trees, open parkland and there's a pool here.

This one we call Swiss Cottage Pond.

Swiss Cottage Pond? Quite a big old pool.

That's probably frogs, toads, newts, that kind of thing in there?

Yeah, yeah.

And also, not only was it parkland for them, it was a working farm...

Oh, was it for them, then?

..and Singleton had sheep up until quite recently -

till around the early part of the '60s.

-Oh, did it?

-Yes.

We head over to take a look at Home Farm,

which is now used as a maintenance base by the council.

I assume this would be the old farmhouse, would it, this one?

-Yes. What you see here is Cornish stone...

-Is it?

..brought all the way from Cornwall.

And the interesting thing is that when he was copper smelting,

a by-product are the capstones on the walls -

that is molten slag.

Jeff shows me some further areas with old sheep and pig pens.

All are now overgrown and fantastic

out of the way wild areas for shier creatures

and definitely somewhere I'll be coming back to.

It's now April

and I'm going to start my search for wildlife today.

During our research, we asked local people what they see in the park.

One thing that everybody remarked upon

was that there's a parrot, or a parakeet living here.

So this morning,

I'm meeting up with Wildlife Trust officer Rhiannon Bevan,

who's had several sightings of the bird whilst walking her dogs.

So you reckon this is a good spot?

Yeah, this is where people come to feed the birds quite a lot,

so I think it hangs around.

Obviously, primarily a fruit feeder,

-so I think people come and feed it apples and...

-Oh, nice.

So we just look out and listen out and...

BIRDSONG

There's a few jackdaws knocking about, isn't there? One or two...

They're all gathering nesting material now, aren't they?

Yeah, these are great holes for jackdaws to nest in.

I suppose that's the same place as a parakeet would nest, too?

Yeah, and I suppose the concern would be

if there is more than one parakeet,

it would be that they would compete for nesting holes.

So it's nice to have one or two parakeets,

but you don't want too many.

-No, no, because at the end of the day, they're not native, so...

-No.

How long's the parakeet been here now?

Because it's quite a few years, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a long time.

I studied at Swansea University and it was definitely here in 2009,

because students used to see it.

They are quite long-lived birds, so...

-Probably Singleton Park's most famous resident now, isn't it?

-Yes!

Cos I've had everyone come up to me and say,

"Oh, you haven't seen the parrot, you haven't filmed the parrot yet?"

I'm saying, "No, I'm looking for it, I'm looking for it."

The weather today is too wet for a tropical bird to be out and about,

but at least I now know where to come and look, next time.

Parks like Singleton are wonderful for novice wildlife watchers

and experienced nature observers alike.

The animals are used to people,

so you can get close-up views,

allowing you to observe their behaviour.

In return, the wildlife benefits

from having a good mixture of habitats,

providing them with everything they need to survive.

There's a pair of goldcrest building a nest,

quite high up in this spruce here

and it's right underneath the branches.

It's like a hanging basket and what they've done is,

they've taken advantage of what's in the park here,

because parks like this, you look around and you see

native trees, plenty of them, but you see exotic ones.

This is an exotic and right next door to it is a native ash tree.

And what the birds are doing is, they're coming down to the ash

and they're picking off little bits of moss there

and they're taking that back up then and building the nest.

It's the perfect place for a bird like a goldcrest.

It's not just the trees birds take advantage of.

Some areas of the park are left untended, to become wild areas

and brambles are a favourite nesting place of long-tailed tits.

There's a pair nesting just down the bottom.

There's a bird just sat up there now and that's interesting,

because they come in... The pair comes in together,

one with a feather in its beak.

That'll go in and build up the nest

and the other one perches up,

just as a look out kind of thing,

and they'll build the nest out of moss - they'll use lichen,

they'll use animal hair, they'll use cobwebs,

but they also need feathers and they'll use anything

between 1,500 and 2,000 feathers,

which is absolutely amazing.

And what I've done is a little experiment, just to see if it works.

I've gathered feathers

and I've put some down on a bramble bush down there.

Now, at the moment I'm quite disgusted, to be honest with you,

because they're ignoring my feathers completely

and they're going elsewhere.

I decide to change tactics

and put the feathers up in a tree instead.

I'm hoping that'll do the trick.

Here we go. Oh, wow.

Well, that's worked a treat -

straight into the tree...

..picked up one feather, dropped it.

Picked up another and hopefully now back to the nest.

Ah, this is interesting.

Because there are so many feathers,

both birds are now collecting them and going back and forth,

so they've changed behaviour completely.

Swansea University was opened in 1920,

the year after the sale of the estate by the Vivian Family.

Up until 1947, there were only two permanent buildings on the site,

but in 1960 large-scale development commenced

and created the busy campus that's here today.

However, there's still some wild areas,

which they encourage people to explore, via a nature walk.

-Dan, how are you, boy?

-Oh, not too bad, thanks, mate. How are you?

'A good friend of mine, Dr Dan Forman, works here

'and has agreed to give me a whistle-stop tour.'

A lot of flat roofs around here, Dan,

and a lot of gulls as well, they must be nesting up there.

They are. Well, to us, these are buildings,

but to many other species they're actually cliffs.

We're right next to the sea.

Is it any wonder that gulls might come and use it?

Perfect place - nice and safe.

We also have a good population of pigeons on-site.

We've also got the things that eat pigeons

and in particular, bit of a favourite of yours - peregrine falcon.

-Oh, wow, have you?

-Beautiful bird to see.

What a lovely garden here, isn't it?

Oh, we're very blessed, really. This is the botanic gardens.

It's basically a natural laboratory for us, really.

Any patch of green space, particularly with water,

it's going to be brilliant for wildlife.

Now, foxes - do you ever see them here?

We do. We're very fortunate, actually,

we have an earth just behind us, over here.

This is an old sand dune hump here,

which is now vegetated up

and in there, we have a breeding group of foxes.

Do you think it'd be possible, when the cubs are out and playing,

to come, maybe one evening and try and film that, do you think?

I think you've got a good chance of doing it on this campus.

They're fairly habituated to people, they're used to people.

They don't get too close, don't get me wrong -

these are still wild animals, but they're more used to us.

It's great to know that there are foxes here,

but I always like to have a backup plan when it comes to mammals,

so I'm placing some remote cameras around Home Farm,

as I've been told it's another good spot for them.

There we are, look. That's quite good.

On my next visit,

I have to turn my attention back to the parakeet.

It's getting embarrassing.

People are joking that Iolo Williams can't find the bright-green parrot!

One of the locals who comes to feed the birds, Stephen John,

says he can give me some advice on finding it,

so I'm heading to the ornamental gardens to meet him.

But on my way there, what do I spot

but the very bird in question!

It's on the floor at the moment. It's hanging around with a jackdaw,

almost like an unwanted aunt, really.

Smart birds. Really, really smart birds.

Getting a nice view of it, it's on the floor here with the jackdaw now.

Its lovely, lovely, very strong red bill, hooked bill,

that of course, in the wild, in Asia,

that would be used to open up seeds, fruits as well.

Even though I've seen the parakeet,

I'm still going to meet up with Stephen,

because he's been keeping a close eye on its behaviour

and he should be able to tell me what's going on here.

Steve, they said you'd be down here feeding the birds.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Can I have some?

-Yeah.

-Just to hold out and see what comes?

-There's a robin over there.

-Um, parakeets.

-Right.

-I saw it this morning.

-Right.

Now, you see it regular, do you?

Yeah. Well, I first noticed it a couple of years ago,

squawking away at the jackdaws, so I went over to investigate

and watched it through the zoom lens.

You know, the jackdaws looked as if they were defending the nest

and the parakeet kept retreating to a nearby branch,

kept returning and there was a squabbling.

This went on for ages

and then the jackdaws came out of the nest

and landed on a branch and the parakeet went

and landed in between the two of them.

And then the three of them flew off together.

Well, what I saw this morning - they landed on the ground

-and the parakeet followed the jackdaw everywhere.

-Yeah, yeah.

What's going on, do you think?

Is it just with that one pair I saw,

is it going from pair to pair to pair, or what?

I think he seems to have interest in any pair,

but I don't know, it's difficult to tell.

I mean, there's so many nesting jackdaws in here,

but the jackdaws are quite happy with him, you know?

He flocks with them and he seems to strike up a bond

with certain pairs perhaps, you know?

And then he is very defensive of them.

So I don't know whether it's because they flock

and the parakeets in the wild will flock...

Yes, they're very gregarious birds.

Yeah, so I don't know whether he's seeing that in them

and he's associating that sort of like gregarious action

and he just likes to flock with them and mingle with them, you know?

I think Stephen's right.

It must be pretty lonely, being the only parakeet in the park.

It's lucky the jackdaws are so accommodating.

They're not the only ones.

I've never had a nuthatch eating from my hand before.

It's the middle of May now

and Swiss Cottage Pond here has been transformed completely.

Half of it is covered in water lilies.

There's a family of moorhen here, too.

I think they've got five chicks in all,

but I'm here today to look for foxes.

This evening, later on, I'm going to go out to the university

to try to see fox cubs,

because this time of year, they should be out of the earth.

But before that, I want to track down a bird living on campus

that Dan mentioned, back in April -

and one that has the title of fastest animal on earth.

I've come to the Institute of Life Sciences building

and this, I'm told, is where the peregrine hangs around.

And you've only got to look down...

Look at this - look at all these feathers here,

Look at these - all over the place.

Most of these, I can tell straight away, are pigeon feathers.

And I bet if we had a good look,

we'd probably find some interesting birds from Swansea Bay as well,

that they've gone out and hunted and brought back here.

Oh, there's some fresher ones here, too.

Look at that now, this is an interesting one.

You can tell this has been had by a bird of prey,

because you see that notch there?

What it's done, it gets hold of the feathers and yanks them out.

But it looks like someone's had a pillow fight here.

There are one or two very interesting feathers here,

so I'm going to send a picture of them to a couple of experts I know,

to get them accurately identified.

But as for the bird itself -

well, I'm going to have to come back again,

because there's no sign of it today.

By 7pm, a couple of hours before sunset,

I'm back at the university's small botanical garden,

to try and observe the foxes that live here.

We've had some remote cameras out at this location

and have managed to spot a couple of adults - which is a good sign -

but I'm still not sure which hole they're using.

I'm trying to pin down exactly where the foxes earth is

and it's a difficult task.

There are quite a few holes here.

The two that look most fresh are just along the edge of this path,

so what I'm going to do, I'm going to settle down

and I'm going to wait and either, hopefully...

something will come out of those holes there,

or if I'm lucky, I'll pick up on a fox elsewhere

and I might be able to follow it back to the earth.

Just a matter of sitting and waiting now.

I've had to move out from underneath the trees

cos it's got so dark, I can't see a thing.

So I've come nearer to the street lights here,

just in case a fox comes down.

And the moment I move, the heavens open.

I'm getting the feeling that it's not going to be my night, somehow!

I wait a while longer, but still nothing.

So after getting completely soaked,

I decide to give up.

Next day, I have another look for the elusive peregrine.

It's still nowhere to be seen,

but I do have some interesting news about the feathers I found.

Look at that one, there's a nice feather.

Now, that is a tail feather from a golden plover.

The golden plover nests up in the uplands -

quite a rare nesting bird,

but then, in the winter, it comes down to lowland areas

and Swansea Bay would be a prime area for it

and that's a hop and a skip away,

so I'm sure that's where the peregrine got that from.

And even more interesting, have a look at these -

these three feathers here.

Now, I was perplexed by those,

I had no idea what they were.

See? Nice marbling black and white there.

Well, again, our experts...

Two experts both said exactly the same thing -

those are the tail feathers from an adult cuckoo.

A cuckoo.

I haven't heard one in Wales this year

and the peregrine here has got hold of one.

It must have just come in off the sea, I would imagine.

Probably easy prey and the peregrine has gone,

"Thank you very much, I'll have that."

It's brought it back here, plucked it and left the evidence.

After my failure at the university to see foxes,

I'm heading for the field just behind Home Farm, to try again.

The remote cameras I placed here have also picked up an adult.

No cubs, but at least I've got a second chance to see a fox.

It's a good evening, it's nice and warm and dry.

Most of the people have gone home now,

so I'm just hoping tonight

that I get to see a fox, live, here.

JACKDAWS CAW

It's a waiting game whilst the sun goes down

and the jackdaws go in to roost.

Just hoping we get something in the next 45 minutes or so,

while we've still got enough light.

About 15 minutes later

and my luck is in.

The research with the trail cameras has paid off.

-WHISPERS:

-Wow.

That's fabulous, there's a fox...

..barely 30 metres away from me down there...

..skulking in the long grass.

He knows we're here, I think.

Finally, I get a proper look at a fox -

a close-up look at a live fox.

Beautiful animal -

really russety, red colour.

That is a really good-looking animal.

Sometimes in cities they look sickly,

because they've got all kinds of illnesses they can catch

and in the country they tend to be healthier.

Well, this one, I can tell you, is a really healthy animal.

It's picked something up.

I'm not going to move right now, because he's looking straight at me.

Oh, what a beautiful animal - look at that!

Phew.

That was fabulous!

And I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding foxes -

rural foxes and urban foxes.

But when you're sitting, watching them this close,

I don't think anyone can argue,

they're really stunning animals.

I time my next visit to Singleton Park

for late July.

The sun is shining and I'm back at the botanical gardens,

which are now in full bloom.

Today, I've brought along a few experts,

so I can find out more about the insects that live here.

'I'm starting with a familiar face -

'Rhiannon Bevan, from the Wildlife Trust...

-Hi, Rhiannon.

-Hello.

'..who not only helped me with the parakeet search,

'but is also handy with a moth trap,

which she put out last night.'

What's that one there, then?

Dark arches. There's lots of these around at the moment.

Oh, there's a nice one, look at that.

Oh, that's beautiful isn't it?

Yeah, it's lovely, looks like an early thorn to me.

Now I'm not a moth expert, but I can tell that this one

is a male, isn't it?

Because it's got the feathered antennae.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

Tell you what, here's one I don't recognise, look at that.

-Oh, wow.

-Grey and yellow, with black legs.

-Yeah, so it's a footman.

-It's a big one, though, isn't it?

Yeah, it is much bigger than most you see.

I think I've got an idea of what it is, but it's probably going to best

-to check the book.

-Go on, you have a look in the book,

because I'll tell you what else is here - there's a common footman.

You catch quite a few of those

and that's the one we're not quite sure what it is,

which is twice the size.

And if Rhiannon hasn't seen it before, then it's probably

going to be...well, pretty scarce, I'd have thought.

Right, have you seen what it is?

Yeah, so I think it's a four-spotted footman.

So, July to September..

Is when it flies, which is right, yeah.

Nationally scarce...

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-Resident populations...

-South west Wales.

-..Southwest Wales.

-What does it say it eats?

-Dog lichen.

-Dog lichen.

-Yeah, so all the footmen eat lichen.

-They eat lichen, do they?

-Yeah.

-Wow.

Well, well, that's the first one I've ever seen.

Potted some nice ones that

I was afraid were going to go before you came.

Oh, wow, that's a brimstone moth. Oh, that's a little beauty...

-It's lovely, isn't it?

-Look at that.

And the last one...

Cor, wow, that is nice.

So that's another thorn, we had a thorn earlier.

This one, appropriately,

is called a canary shouldered thorn.

-And it's lovely, isn't it? Really nice bright yellow.

-Absolutely lovely.

Yep, it's the first one I've seen this year,

so they've only just emerged.

Altogether, we caught about 18 different species,

which is pretty good going for a night's moth trapping.

The next creature I'm finding out about is hard to spot,

but Dr Isabella Brey completed a PhD about them

and has collected some for us to take a closer look at.

Graham, our cameraman, has got his macro lens on

to help us see them better.

-Is this one of them here?

-Here's one, that's a little baby.

Right, OK. Now these are what, landhoppers?

-Yes.

-I have to admit, I'd never heard of landhoppers before.

I've heard of sandhoppers - the ones you get on the beach.

Yes, they are a relative,

but these ones do not require the sea at all

and they live solely on land.

So where did these come from, do we know that?

Yes, they are from Mid-Eastern Australia.

Obviously, Singleton Botanic Gardens...

Lots of lovely tropical plants were imported and these hitched a ride.

How do they jump, then? Using their legs?

No, they jump by uncurling their abdomen.

They carry the...the tip of their abdomen tucked under,

until you frighten them and then they unfold,

unfurl very quickly and hurl themselves up into the air.

Are they all over Wales?

Not yet, but they have made big inroads

and what they really like is deep leaf litter

that stays damp all year round, ideally.

They are surviving now in natural woodlands, all over the country.

More and more people will be seeing them, for sure.

The most obvious insects in the garden

at this time of year are bees.

Sinead Lynch from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and I

are going to see what species we can find.

This bit here, Sinead, is alive with bees, this one. Look at that.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, it's fantastic.

-Yeah.

Right, OK, what have we got? We've got honeybees.

Yeah, the honeybees, they're almost waspish-looking, aren't they?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Quite narrow-bodied.

And you can tell them as well, because their back legs are flared,

so it's like they've got flares on.

-And is that to carry pollen?

-Yes, yes.

-Right, OK.

And then what are these?

Are these white-tailed or buff- tailed bumble bees, these here?

-They've got two yellow bands and a sort of whitish tail...

-Yeah.

..so they're all workers and you can't really tell the workers apart

with buff tails and white tails,

so we just say they're either a buff-tail or a white-tail.

Oh, so you can't distinguish one from the other at all, can you?

Not really - not in the field.

-Red-tailed, red-tailed bumble bee.

-Oh, yeah, so we've got a...

So that'll be another worker, that one?

That's a worker, yeah, and all the workers are female.

And there's a massive one here, huge one.

It's got almost like an orangey back

and then black and then buffy white tail.

Yeah, so that is a new species to the UK.

It's called the tree bumblebee and it's come in sort of from France

and it's spread across most of the UK now.

And it's very distinctive, as you say

and they nest above ground, generally.

So they nest in roofs, in nest boxes

and in trees, as the name suggests.

Hence the name tree bumble bee.

And this one is huge, this is a big one.

Does that mean that's going to be a queen?

That's a queen, yeah.

So really big, big bumble bees, they'll be the queens.

So what's the queen doing out now?

Because I thought they just stayed in the nest.

That'll be a new queen.

That's a new queen that's been produced this year.

She'll be storing up lots of nectar in her belly,

so she can hibernate.

And next spring, she'll come out when it starts to warm up,

she'll find somewhere to nest

and then she can start producing a new colony.

BEE BUZZES

It's wonderful to see good numbers of bees and other insects

here in the botanical gardens.

It's a colourful oasis for them.

Today, I'm up with the sunrise

for one last attempt to find the peregrine.

Finally, my luck is in and it's taken up position

on the Life Sciences building,

giving me a fantastic view.

It's an adult bird. It's a full adult bird, it's a...

..it's a male.

Stunning bird, because it's just staring at me now.

Oh, I tell you what it looks like - he's killed this morning,

because just along, just to the left of him...

fresh feathers

and fresh, fresh pink meat as well.

This is the nearest building to the bay out there,

which is probably the best hunting area for him.

But it's lovely to finally catch up with the peregrine.

My last visit is in autumn.

The trees are the stars of the park at this time of year.

On a sunny day, the colourful scenes are worth a trip to see.

They also continue to be a resource for the animals of the park,

so there's plenty of wildlife to see as well.

Wood pigeons are feasting on the bumper crop of beech mast this year.

Easy pickings from the floor,

but trickier to pluck from the spindly branches above.

Squirrels are busy fattening up on autumn's riches.

They're certainly not fussy eaters.

And jays can be seen burying their finds for later in the winter,

carefully covering each hoard with some grass or a leaf.

For me, the most remarkable thing about Singleton Park has been...

despite the fact that it's completely surrounded

by houses and busy roads,

it's the wealth of wildlife.

I've seen a ring-necked parakeet for the first time ever.

The peregrine that had been feeding not just on pigeons,

but on golden plover and a cuckoo.

And also, I've seen a fox here -

and this is in the most urban of urban parks.

And it goes to show, I think, that if you talk to the right people,

you keep your eyes and your ears open -

you never know what you're going to see.